In Defense of Food: Cooking For Others

In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan is, to say the least, initially confusing. You truly have to read the whole book to gain the entirety of the ideas he presents and his root theory, while simple, requires every bit of the information he gives: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.  He believes that if the average American lives with this advice we can effectively reverse the effects of the western diet. But what does he mean by these simple phrases and how can they be applied to our daily life? Condensed his point is this: eat whole food, not refined (and inherently nutrients rich complex food,) eat quality food, not quantity, eat plants, mosty leaves, and enjoy food, old fashion American food culture. I attempted to exemplify his points in a home made meal, where my family members picked a dish, and I cooked whatever meal they chose in a traditional way, or as Pollan would say, the way your mom made it. I designed every element of the meal to adhere to the rules he gives in the back of In Defense of Food such as, "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food," and presented it in a way that encompassed all of his guidelines for eating: eat at a table, and eat with other people. However, food choices varied, one list encompassing what Pollan would label as nutritionalist e.i. presenting food as a set of nutrients and values rather then a piece of our culture, and the other containing traditional, uniquely American food. However, even the nutritionalist meals were planned and created to show how Americans can change their food lifestyle to reverse the onset of the Western diet, all ingredients were traditional and in season, all were cooked without and unnatural additives, and no processed substances were added.